© Chuck Choi

• Architects: ArchiTerra Inc.
• Location: United States, Boston, MA, USA
• Architect In Charge: ArchiTerra Inc.
• Area: 28000.0 ft2
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Chuck Choi

• Mep/Fp Engineering: R.G. Vanderweil Engineers Structural Engineering, McNamara-Salvia Inc
• Energy Modeler: TNZ Energy Consulting Inc Construction Manager, Lee Kennedy Co Inc
• Food Service Consultant: Ricca Design Studios Lighting Designer, Horton Lees Brogden
• Client: Boston Public Market Association

Diagram

From the architect. Design Excellence

The design of the first public market in the country to feature local, sustainable food reflects the triumph of place-making and architectural creativity over mind-boggling infrastructure complexity, transforming the ground floor of a previously vacant state office building into a vibrant destination that anchors a growing market district. 

© Chuck Choi

User Experience

Crisply detailed white canopies of corrugated metal are evenly washed with up-lights, creating luminous canted ceilings that vault over 40 distinctive vendor stalls. Rectangular pylons clad in metallic copper laminate conceal utility risers and simulate a pillared market hall. Pendant lights of copper and silver define the aisles and central hub and evoke a culinary theme. With overhead utilities left in shadow and copious use of salvaged barn board, the overall ambiance is that of a bustling market street at twilight.

© Chuck Choi

Vendor Experience

Creative stall and signage designs are encouraged to express individual vendor personalities while exacting tenant design standards safeguard the appearance and performance market as a whole. An ingenious system of regularized rental modules, sign supports, and plug-and-play utility service connections eases vendor start-up and supports flexible change over time. Aisle layouts and selling walls are designed to maximize rentable area and encourage visitor/grower-seller interaction while integrated LED track lighting highlights the bounty of food and optimizes retail sales.

Exploded Axonometric

Infrastructure Ingenuity

The design reconciles extreme site constraints – Central Artery Tunnel

ventilation shafts, Haymarket subway station, parking garage, and new Registry of Motor Vehicles – with complex infrastructure requirements. With no basement, sub-floor utilities had to be designed within a raised slab. With no ceiling plenum, overhead utilities had to be thread through a morass of existing infrastructure serving the upper office floors.

© Chuck Choi

The design integrates seven entrances, drawing visitors and residents from all parts of the city. The Teaching Kitchen and Market Hub create memorable urban destinations. Through displays, signage and active instruction, the entire market is designed as a platform for public education. Building- scale signs, exterior lighting, and window decals designed as part of the project announce the market as the cornerstone of the emerging market district.

© Chuck Choi

Sustainability

The new market supports local agriculture and promotes land conservation while reducing carbon emissions associated with food transport by air. Ninety percent of all the food sold in the market is grown, caught or produced in Massachusetts, supporting the local economy. The design minimizes energy and water use while providing for recycling and composting. Designed to meet LEED standards for Interior Design & Construction (v. 4, Retail), the project is currently being submitted for LEED Silver certification.

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Site Section

© Chuck Choi

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Context. Image © Johan Mottelson

In an effort to create affordable housing in Maputo, Mozambique, Casas Melhoradas is an applied research project aimed at eliminating city slums. Organized by the Institute of Architecture, Urbanism & Landscape, at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation, in collaboration with the Mozambican NGO Estamos, the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (FAPF) and the Danish branch of Architects Without Borders (AUG), the project is part of research initiative on urban development in the Global South.

Street view. Image © Johan Mottelson

Casas Melhoradas has a tripartite focus: the development of alternative construction methods to improve building quality while decreasing the cost of housing; the development of new housing typologies, which utilize space and infrastructure more economically for more sustainable urban development; the construction of affordable rental housing through public-private partnerships to enlarge positive effects.

Old house prior to vertical addition. Image © Johan Mottelson

“The project develops multi-story housing typologies, rooted in the local socio-economic and cultural conditions, seeking to utilize space more efficiently, in order to contain the urban sprawl and use the infrastructure more economically,” say the project organizers. “Thereby, the project seeks to facilitate the development of more compact urban environments in the slums and make future infrastructure investments more cost-effective. On this background, the project seeks to improve mobility, improve the access to infrastructure and economize space.”

Street view. Image © Johan Mottelson

Previously featured on ArchDaily, this newest example of the Casas Melhoradas project, designed by Johan Mottelson and Jørgen Eskemose, was built in 2016 and features a vertical addition to an existing house near the center of Maputo; part of a slum area known as Polana Canico. The expansion was achieved by using concrete supports at ground level to create a foundation for the first floor timber expansion. The project utilizes prefabricated wood elements that were made at a local timber workshop, brought to the site on foot, and assembled on site in a short period of time.

The old house is the common “Casa de Blocos” (local housing type consisting of concrete blocks). Image © Johan Mottelson

“Casa de Madeira e Zinco” (local housing type consisting of a timber and corrugated iron sheets). Image © Johan Mottelson

In a city not known for effective planning, regulation enforcement, or infrastructure, this newest Casas Melhoradas example riffs on local Maputo tradition, adding to what was strictly a Casa de Blocos construction – a house built with only concrete blocks – and creating a variant on the Casa de Madera e Zinco typology of timber housing clad in corrugated iron sheeting. Some of the house’s notable features are a plywood ceiling with insulation foil, mosquito net coverings over natural ventilation openings, new windows added to the old ground floor, and a gallery oriented towards a private outdoor area, which also serves a covered porch.

View from private outdoor space. Image © Johan Mottelson

Maputo has a population of 2.5 million with approximately eighty percent of inhabitants living in slums. The city’s population has been expanding at a pace of approximately five percent a year, with new buildings that are overwhelmingly on the horizontal plane. As Maputo’s footprint increases and puts greater strain on existing and yet-unbuilt infrastructure, land values at the city center have grown, adding incentive for greater densification in the future.

Small scale public space added to the street. Image © Johan Mottelson

Casas Melhoradas’ housing units are rented out and fully financed over 10 to 15 year periods. To complete the work, project organizers rely on public-private partnerships, and are seeking donors and investors for future collaboration. More information can be found, here.

Architects: Johan Mottelson and Jørgen Eskemose, Institute of Architecture, Urbanism and Landscape, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Design, and Conservation
Location: Polana Caniço, Maputo, Mozambique
Area: 30 m2
Year: 2016
Photo Credits: Johan Mottelson

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